Portside

Just a few years ago, insiders and experts wrote us off and assured the world Keystone XL would be built by the end of 2011. Together, ranchers, tribal nations and everyday people beat this project back, reminding the world that Big Oil isn't invincible.

Jefferson County school board politics have made headlines across the state and the nation for nearly two years. Pundits called the election Tuesday a political “proxy war” over larger right-left economic and cultural issues, a key battle for the future of public education, a warm up for the 2016 presidential election year in a bellwether county in a crucial swing state.

Dear Dr. Dollar: It seems like Puerto Rico’s economic and financial mess came out of nowhere. Until recently, there wasn’t much about Puerto Rico in the press, but what there was seemed to portray things as fine, with a generous amount of funds going to the island from Washington. Sometimes, Puerto Rico was held up as a model for economic development. So where did the current mess come from? —Janet Sands, Chicago, Ill.

A likely vote of no confidence in Portugal's hard-right government will signify whether voters in the EU can still choose their own government.

War veteran Fred Norman devotes his writing to Peace. His mantra: Each night I ask myself/what did I do today/to end the wars?//If I answer back with/"Nothing"/then the dead that day/are mine.//I beg of them forgiveness.

Three quarters of the Asian-American vote went to the Republican presidential candidate just two decades ago. In 2012, three quarters of Asian Americans voted for Barack Obama. This dramatic change in party preference is stunning. No other group has shifted so dramatically in their party identification within such a short time period. Some are calling it the “GOP’s Asian erosion.”

Maine's Clean Elections program and Seattle's Honest Elections Seattle swept to notable victories on Tuesday, providing ways that candidates can run for office without relying on big money from special interests. These efforts are a reminder that many of the most important initiatives to fix our broken campaign finance system are happening on the state and local level.

A research study has debunked the widely-held belief that the hippocampus, a crucial part of the brain that consolidates new memories and helps connect emotions to the senses, is larger in females than in males.

His critics say he’s not realistic – but they have it backwards. The only reason this attention-averse, sometimes socially uncomfortable person is subjecting himself to this asinine process is because he genuinely believes the system is not beyond repair.